Infinite Genesis
by Late Nova
Summary: (AU) A future where every country's power and prestige is determined by their super robots. There is only one catch; only females can pilot them. Unsurprisingly Shinji Ikari unwittingly became the only male pilot in the world, whether he liked it or not. Try not to die Shinji. Mildly based on Infinite Stratos. Chapter 1 revised.


Chapter 1: Pilot

Author's note: Hi everyone;

A few things first, this is my first fanfiction attempt, ever. Secondly I should make it clear this is an Evangelion alternative universe piece of fiction. This means only characters from Evangelion would be appearing, even though a lot of the ideas originated from Infinite Stratos.

On this chapter I played around with the 1st PoV which I felt went –okay- but not spectacularly well so that would have to be worked on in the coming chapters.

Unfortunately I don't have a beta reader right now so I'm not too sure about the quality of the writing itself. But please do read it, you may find it entertaining one way or another. Afterwards you may leave a review if you're feeling generous enough.

Revision note: Ran over it again and fixed up a lot of the errors.

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or Infinite Stratos.

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Somewhere in East Europe:

"Do you see anything?" A man asked into his satellite phone. The man's voice was gruff due to his throat being chapped by the cold from brutal winter he has been exposed to over the last two months. Perched into an overlook with a clear view to what appear to be a non descriptive cave by some equally bland mountain side. The man knew better then to look away for even a minute in case someone snuck around. At this time the operation has evolved into a battle of paranoia for both sides and he was not a man who would allow his foes to outdo him in preparedness.

"No sir." The reply belonged that of a young woman, the humming of machine in the background. "I have completed my patrol; it appears they are willing to starve themselves for another week then to risk going for supplies tonight."

"I see, very well." The same man said again, while picking his binoculars up from the snow next to him and peered once more at the cave entrance. To an untrained eye the cave looked inconspicuous, even Gendo Ikari thought they have been more careful this time around, thus warranting the two man siege of the hideout instead of going straight in. 'They've gone for the much more careful approach this time. Then again posting guards outside a secret entrance really defeats the purpose,' Gendo thought darkly humorously to himself recalling his last operation against the same cell further west in the Romanian woodlands.

With his binoculars he then scanned the cave entrance once more before pressing a button allowing him to view into the infrared spectrum revealing the red telltale lines of many traps and proximity sensors. 'They've been waiting for me to make the first move.' This was nothing new to him, in fact he realized this the moment he found the entrance almost two months ago; back then the winter just barely started. With the binoculars he traced away from the entrance and down what was once in summer a dirt path well concealed by foliage now covered by winter snow, which lead to a nearby remote village where the hideout had been getting its supply pickups from. Satisfied it revealed nothing alarming he proceeded to observe other areas of concern for anything out of the ordinary.

Switching to thermal vision, displayed multiple cooled blue blobs all over the ground of the snowed out forest where fallen bodies of ambushed patrols and supply runs going to and from the small base. Whilst a third of the bodies have been covered in snow completely indicating they've been felled for at least a good portion of a week if not more, the majority two thirds were only partially covered; those belonging to the largest and most recent attempt to break his siege. A quick recall reminded him that the exact number he felled by sniping and booby traps took out exactly one hundred and twenty nine people. The White Devil would be proud. Every felled soldier was searched for anything of importance such as written instructions or maps but made sure he took nothing he couldn't disassemble or easily inspected in case the enemy had planned for something clandestine. The last time he picked up an AK-74 from a dead soldier he was almost caught by a positioning device planted on the rifle.

From the amount of supplies they purchased from the village fortnightly he judged the base to house around one hundred and fifty men, meaning they are running dangerously low on personal at this moment and if they weren't spooked before they must definitely be spooked now with more than half its men eliminated. If he was a rasher man he would have stormed in to take the advantage of the fact the enemy was so depleted and famished by hunger, though Gendo knew running into a cave filled with armed men on high alert was a very bad move.

'Moving in when the enemy is on red alert would be too dangerous. I do not know the layout of the base, those traps at the entrance also makes it too dangerous for a careless assault.'

Judging from the regular runs for supplies the base was probably not very big on the inside, most likely cramped too, and making the prospect of any kind of close quarter combat unappealing. Gendo was sure whoever was in charge of their outfit would be beating themselves in hindsight once this is over.

'Under normal circumstances I'd have the whole mountainside collapsed, but I need the information they are holding inside.'

At least it was much easier crossing the border than usual without carrying his case full of c4 and semtex. Reviewing his options he had someone with him who could turn the inside of the base into a gore filled pit in a heartbeat, but the entrance were much too small to allow that option. Additionally her presence here would ruin phase two of his plans and potentially endanger the information stored within the hardware in the hideout.

Keeping one eye on the landscape Gendo fumbled for his comms in his coat, once found in his left pocket he talked into it. "They would have called for reinforcements by now and judging from the information Ritsuko has given us, I am expecting them to be here within this week if not now."

A small pause to allow for the information to sink in.

"How are the preparations?"

"Everything is ready sir. The moment the reinforcements come to sure up this position and bring in fresh supplies we will be able to take them out all at once. You can count on me sir." It was the young woman's voice again, eagerness apparent at her last sentence.

"You don't have to keep telling me that Mana."

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Rei Ikari was not one who overly appreciated nature, but she was sure the sun was shining brighter for her today. Sure she enjoyed _looking_ at nature, heck it was one of her favorite past times staring out the window in class, but she wasn't one who would go crazy over it.

'It's not like there's anything better to do once Misato has her moments while teaching.'

Though for the moment, not even the thought of Misato misbehaving badly could snap her out of her cheery mood.

Rei did a double check of her appearance and the contents of her small hand bag; today was an important day, like hell she was not going to be prepared on the day she's going to the airport to pick up her dear younger brother. She couldn't help but remember despite everything she was the one always prepared, and scheming, while her brother was the responsible but naïve one. But that's okay in her books because his naivety made him very cute. Standing in front of her mirror Rei was satisfied with her appearance dressed in her favorite white sundress. Then making sure she was bringing sufficient money for a big lunch and dinner, as well as her keys and cellphone, Rei hopped down the stairs almost skipping to the kitchen to pick up her handmade snacks before slipping on her boots, bounding out of the house to catch her taxi.

If Fuyutski was at home right now he'd have a heart attack at how outwardly happy Rei was acting.

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Shinji decided he lucked out during his ten hour plus flight from Paris to Japan considering usually he would struggle to find any semblance of sleep due to the reason the only time he could visit his sister in Japan was during school holidays which entailed the higher than normal possibility of sharing the cabin with screaming children also on holiday.

While technology has advanced like nobody could imagine since the introduction of the Genesis Core and the Genesis Machines, such as the widespread use of interactive holograms and high tech synthetic materials, for whatever reason he could not come up with an excuse why no one has invented effective noise cancellers to block the noise to crying babies and misbehaving children on long haul flights yet except maybe out of spite.

'Note to self: invent super advanced ear plugs.' Shinji knew traditional earplugs were widely available and noise cancellation headphones are always an option, but he since found out he had headaches when using rubber ear plugs in a pressurized cabin, while he found noise cancelation headphones too bulky to try to fall asleep in. 'Headphones are too bulky so any device covering the ears therefore must be light. The issue was that ear plugs create an irregularity between the pressure in the ear and the air pressure in the cabin so anything going into the ear canal must allow enough air to pass through while maintaining an acceptable level of noise cancellation,' Shinji pondered to himself internally as he got off the plane with the other passengers, his mind working at his newest conundrum the entire time he walked down and around the arrival terminal.

'Then again I could afford business class seats,' Shinji thought to himself, however he was extremely reluctant to touch the sizable wealth his father left him and Rei before leaving his family and instead the money used for this trip was earned by Shinji working at the cafes around the student campus and other nearby shops. He did not like to brag but he knew he can make one hell of a cappuccino. Striking an unpleasant memory Shinji's face unconsciously darkened noticeably at the thought of his father, which the customs officer checking his passport wasn't too amused with. Suddenly noticing the man's displeasure Shinji cleared out his negative thoughts and gave the man an apologetic smile for his bad manners.

"Sorry it was a long flight," Shinji was not one to be rude.

"It's alright Mr Ikari, you may go on," said the officer with an understanding nod of his head then gave a casual sweep of his arm as to tell Shinji to move on and to signal the next person in line to come forward.

Though Shinji knew the man did in fact took longer than usual, but he was used to the fact people tend to pause a moment when taking in his surname. It was not every day they meet the child of the famous scientist who revolutionized the world. Though more often than not it caused numerous inconveniences such as not being able to use the common automatic passport checkers used widely nowadays in airport arrival terminals, but every country's customs had to make sure it was _him_ coming through the border, though by now he was very much used to it so it didn't bother him much as much as it used to.

Due to his good fortunes on his flight, Shinji had time to watch several movies during the flight, followed by a few hours of sleep before waking up for his meal. For the last few hours of his flight he read several glossy GM focused magazines while listening to music from his old sdat. Shinji planned to be a scientist one day following in his mother's footsteps, though he had been told by his teachers judging from his test scores, his aptitude for engineering was much higher. Personally he wished to be a pilot of those Genesis Machines his mother created, and sometimes he seriously envied his twin sister especially when she emailed him about the exhilaration when soaring through the sky at supersonic speeds in her training machine. Unfortunately his hopes were dashed before it could ever begin because it was common knowledge that it was impossible for males to pilot a Genesis Machine, due to an unknown reason males are unable to synchronize with the Genesis Core powering the machine. Therefore if Shinji decided if couldn't pilot them, Shinji decided he would work on supporting them in order to be near the machines he felt connected him and his mother.

Shinji made no secret for his ambitions; his god-father Fuyutsuki deemed it as a respectable and well paid profession, most nations pay through the roof for capable development staff for their GM fleets and having a personal who shares DNA as the person who invented these miraculous machines would send their nation prestige through the roof. His roommate in France joked he would be a most excellent chef and would be a success if he opened a restaurant in Paris and promised to be his first customer if he ever went ahead with the plan. Likewise Rei rebutted him stating he would make a most excellent housewife.

As Shinji waited outside the airport under the shade of a tree for the arrival of his sister to pick him up from the airport, Shinji recalled the more memorable parts of the magazine who read during the flight. Out of every article the one which left him with the largest impression was an article about the newest ace arrival to Japan. The featured pilot was a young prodigy who was half German half Japanese who officially on paper was currently a German citizen, though her funnily enough machine was made in Japan. An interesting fact was the Genesis Core was third ever built and the first Genesis Machine built outside the purview of Dr Ikari. The article in the magazine took up two full spreads of the magazine not including another full spread dedicated toward pictures of the pilot and her Genesis Machine as well as various merchandises to the ace's image. Not that Shinji blamed them, as what he discerns, the ace Asuka Langely Soryu was very attractive and gave out an aura of liveliness who gave well mannered answers to the interviewer, while her hulking red Genesis Machine the "Kampfer" had a proud impressiveness to its aesthetics. Shinji was not very surprised when he recalled a memory of his friend Kensuke, who happened to be a very enthusiastic fan of all things military, told him once about how Asuka topped the first five positions in the popularity contest regularly held for the aces globally and merchandises of Asuka and her Kampfer enjoyed equal success. Inwardly Shinji wondered if he would meet a her one day in the flesh should he ever succeed in his ambitions.

Out of the corner of his left eye he noticed a bob of pale blue hair meaning Rei has finally arrived to fetch him. Turning his head fully both siblings noticed each other at the same time and navigated around the bustling airport footpaths to meet each other in a hug.

"Mmm," hummed Rei as she hummed into Shinji's chest before releasing herself and inspected Shinji in his casual white shirt and black trousers much the same way a mother would inspect her child and nodded approvingly.

"You grew taller Shinji,' stated Rei in a factual tone, and then frowned. Rei has always observed that Shinji has always been a bit pretty for a boy sometimes wished he would develop some masculine features for his own benefit. 'Though Shinji is Shinji, and I would love him no matter his state.'

"Really? I actually started playing basketball with Touji and exercise a bit more, you know, to fill up my frame a bit, but I don't think I'm the type to pack a lot of muscles," said Shinji though slightly dejectedly at the last part as if reading Rei's mind. From outward appearances one could tell both are definitely twins despite the difference in hair and eye color. While Rei's body was lithe with a striking figure even while wearing her modest white sundress, likewise Shinji's slim body lead many to believe he was a tomboy when he was younger, not that he was thin but due to the refined facial features and compact bodies exhibited of the twins.

Rei shook her head, her own situational way of saying she did not mean to cause offence; once someone gets used to spending time with Rei one would find she expresses herself with subtle body language much more than speech. Suddenly Shinji felt the cool hands of his twin sister touch his hands and placed something into his palm.

"Here," Rei looked into her brother's eye with an expectant gaze. "You're hungry. You're always hungry after your flight."

"Ah, thanks Rei," said Shinji gratefully. Carefully unwrapping the rice ball Shinji took a generous bit into his snack, eyes widening slightly as the slight sweetness of the rice and the saltiness of the fillings created a pleasant sensation over his tongue's taste buds.

"It's good." Rei said factually as she observed her brother's expression. Inwardly Rei gave herself an arm pump with a job well done. Rei knew among many things, Shinji was proficient at the culinary arts something she suspected he picked up from staying in France not that she minded. The fact that Shinji once said he could never lie about anything related to cooking with a serious expression assured Rei that her brother genuinely appreciated her snack, something which made her a bit warm and fuzzy on the inside. Spurred on by the momentum of her spectacular success of the beginning phases of her day plan Operation Big Welcome, Rei deftly captured Shinji's elbow and led him toward the taxi stand where it would take them to a chosen predestinated restaurant Rei chosen earlier in order to proceed to phase two.

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After I spent a delightful moment to finish off Rei's delicious snack which incidentally was the exact time required for Rei to call down a taxi, 'she couldn't have planned this down to the exact second could she?' Before I could continue with my thoughts about Rei, I was promptly manhandled and jostled into an average looking bright yellow taxi where Rei leaned over the seat to give the driver the instructions to wherever she wanted to bring me to lunch.

During the ride I couldn't help but notice the difference between my place of study for the past 6 years at Paris, and my old home and birthplace Tokyo-3 as I looked out the taxi window. Whereas Paris was beautiful retaining a lot of its traditional architecture, with its classical cobbled side roads and old masonry buildings, Tokyo-3 had embraced technology fully. A bright glare of reflected sunlight assaulted my eyes as I looked at the array of skyscraper sized solar panels which I was very certain was not there the last time I visited Rei near the city limits turning itself, I suspected automatically, towards the optimum angle to catch the most of the afternoon sun. Along the road holographic billboards advertised the newest consumer gizmos shared space with the trees methodically placed so the city did not look _too_ artificial and even the traffic lights turned from the simple box containing mere green, yellow, red lights into something out off a sci-fi racing movie complete with moving multicolored holographic animations. As if a greater power was spying my thoughts and wanted to punctuate a point I spied a duo of GMs far off in the distance leaving white trails in the sky, whom I guessed were approaching NERV Academy for a landing on the other side of the city from the airport, completing the sublime futuristic aura the whole city seems to emanate.

Quite frankly I admit I must look a lot like a tourist or at the very least someone who has left the country for an extended period of time. So when the taxi driver started chatting to me about various local topics such as the completion of several mega malls and recent news headlines it came as no real surprise in fact I felt somewhat grateful at his friendly attitude which made an otherwise long and boring ride into something rather pleasant, at several points during the ride even the normally quiet Rei leaned over in order to slip in a comment or two.

When the taxi reached its destination we were just finishing off a discussion about the best place around my neighborhood to buy the freshest cooking ingredients from; apparently a new multistoried building devoted to food opened recently just fifteen minutes away from where I would be staying. After the taxi came to a complete stop by a pedestrian footpath at the heart of the city Rei reached into her handbag to pay the taxi fare, but I stopped her and insisted I would pay instead to which Rei was perfectly okay with. The driver counted the money and paused when he realized I slipped in a little bit extra for him to which I nodded with a smile.

"Please I insist fully," I nodded once more with an encouraging smile. In my mind he deserved it for the pleasant trip he gave us.

"Hah, well you must be the most polite customer this entire week!" replied the driver cheerily while he placed the cash into the till box.

"Best wishes to you and your girlfriend!" said the man with a wink at the same time the taxi doors automatically closed itself after it decided it had been opened for far too long. Before I could have corrected him the door was already closed and the taxi had pulled onto the main road. When I turned around Rei was waiting for me on the footpath.

"Ah, you must have heard that," I said sheepishly a bit embarrassed as I scratched the back of my head noticing the flush on Rei's cheeks.

Rei shook her head slowly from side to side, "No it's quite alright." She took several steps forward before once again capturing my arm within her grasps. "Let's go, I'm hungry," added Rei as I allowed her to steer me through the crowd towards whichever eatery she had picked earlier.

It had been nearly two in the afternoon when we reached our destination, a quiet but tidy looking restaurant on the top floor of a smallish shopping arcade which by appearance I assumed served traditional Japanese meals.

"I thought it had been a while since you've had Japanese," Rei explained.

What she said was true, while Paris was considered by many as one of the culinary capitals of the world there was a distinct lack of authentic Japanese restaurants whose recipes wasn't marred by the skewed taste buds of westerners. Very often I was served with altered dishes I found either to be too sweet or salty to my liking, though to be fair I wouldn't blame the chefs after all they had to meet the local demand to make their living.

I could have taken full advantage of the conveniences of living in a modern society by buying my own ingredients and made myself Japanese meals to my own liking using the dormitory kitchens, but unfortunately I didn't not know any recipes outside of the most basic mainly due to leaving Japan before I really took up my hobby of cooking.

Which reminded me that I needed to 'acquire' as many of Rei's cooking recipes as possible before I leave Tokyo-3. If that riceball was anything to go by she must have several more tricks hidden up her sleeve.

But it was very heartwarming Rei was so thoughtful towards my own situation that I couldn't help but smile brightly at Rei who in turn looked happier than I've ever seen her.

Eventually we were seated on a matching wooden chair and table by the window which overlooked the bustling main street beneath us. From the menu I ordered a beef bowl, something I've been craving for a since I've landed, Rei in turn ordered a vegetarian ramen. On top of everything we also ordered some vegetarian sushi and tempura to share. A staff member returned shortly after with our tea.

Now that both of us were both comfortably seated and watered we could properly catch up.

"Have you been well Shinji?" It was a casual question most people would use to get a conversation started.

So I told her about my studies which were doing well, about how Touji and Kensuke constantly got into trouble for slacking off as well as things me and my roommate got up to during our free time. Of course there were other unpleasant situations which occasionally happen to students living abroad as well but I didn't think Rei needed to hear about that. Throughout the conversation Rei sat on her seat with her hands clasped on her lap the very picture of good manners and model of pristine posture while keeping eye contact on me the entire time. At certain points Rei nodded, a sign to encourage me into continuing or to further elaborate a point.

So it came as a surprise when Rei frowned slightly all of a sudden. On other people such a small frown might have been negligible but when it was Rei she might as well have got up and slammed the table. The sudden intensity of her eyes also sent a shiver down my spine. I racked my mind trying to recall if I said something unpleasant.

"Roommate." While barely audible the tone demanded my explaination.

Oh right. I realized throughout all my regular emails with her I never mentioned my new roommate at the dorm who moved in with me since the start of this year. Rei must have assumed I lived alone for entire time I was overseas.

"Ahaha, that would be Kaworu," I said embarrassed at forgetting to ever mention such an important fixture of my everyday life for the past year. Or maybe because Kaworu was around so much it simply skipped out of my mind. "The rooms at the dorm were meant to be shared between two people, but when we first moved in there wasn't a lot of exchange students so were fortunate enough to get a room to ourselves," I explained, though it never stopped Touji and Ken who occasionally raided my room and caused a raucous, I had my suspicions they were secretly jealous at how tidy I kept the room. "But we had more exchange students since the beginning of the year and Kaworu opted to stay with me."

"Kaworu." The frown deepened. At this point she may as well flip the table out of the window. "I was not informed girls were allowed to stay together with boys in the dormitories."

Huh. I froze at what she said and my brain had to backtrack to process her statement. When my brain fully comprehended why she was so upset, I snorted, hand covering my mouth to prevent my laughter from escaping. It was definitely bad manners but the thought of Rei getting so riled up by such an innocent misunderstanding almost had me in full blown hysterical laughter. Kaworu was also a girl's name and Rei must have pieced together a very misleading image in her head.

"Shinji!" All sign of composure abandoned Rei placed both palms on the table and leaned forward aggressively demanding an explaination.

"I-I'm sorry Rei," I said honestly, though it was not very believable right now considering I was still barely choking back laughs. Wiping the tear from my eyes I made eye contact with Rei and almost flinched. "Sorry Rei really. But Kaworu is a guy."

It took a moment for the information to sink in, but after a few blinks her expression returned to its passive aloof state, she folded her arms and turned away from me pretending to be enthralled by something infinitely more interesting than me outside of the window. I could make out the slight pink tinge on her cheeks, her pale complexion betrayed her. I had the suspicion this was Rei's version of a pout.

I would be a poor brother if I didn't know of a way make up with my sister for my rudeness, pressing my palms together and bowing my head low enough to ensure my hands were raised above the position of my head I assumed the pitiful position of a man begging for forgiveness. "Ah, glorious and honorable older sister, I beg you to show mercy on this miserable man that is your younger brother!"

It was fortunate timing it was just passed lunch break with the only other patrons sitting on the other side of the room behind some wooden partitions otherwise this would have drawn many embarrassing stares.

With the cold grace of an imperial princess inspecting a suitor of lower birth Rei shifted her head slightly in my direction and peered at me through her eye lashes at the corners of her eyes. I swore at this point she was deliberately milking the situation as she turned to fully face me painfully slowly, head held high as if addressing a lower life form.

"Date." It not a statement but a command which allowed for no compromises. A finger tapped against her folded arm indicating impatience at my affirmative answer.

Date? Some disturbing implications surfaced to the top of my thoughts.

"You mean you just want me to spend time with you right?" I prayed this was Rei being verbally awkward.

There was a flat pause before her reply, "is that not what I said?" Rei's tone hovered somewhere between exasperation and sub arctic coldness, my nervousness only seemed to encourage her oppressive aura to push harder for me to say yes.

Releasing a breath I did not know I was holding I nodded as an expression of acceptance to her terms and attempted to disarm what's left of her foul mood with my most charming smile I could muster which failed spectacularly as it flew right over her head. Whatever Rei was thinking of in her head distracted her from happenings of the outside world momentarily.

Recovering from her daze Rei snapped back to normal to name her demands. "After lunch you will come with me to the NERV base," Rei had laid down her terms for reconciliation. It took a moment for me to register she wanted me to go into a heavily defended part school part GM academy with her. Obviously it would not be a problem for Rei as she studied and trained there thus granted access but for me it was a whole other matter. I really didn't feel like being shot at or arrested today in fact it would be preferable if I didn't get shot up or arrest any day for the rest of my life.

As the staff came back with our orders, Rei read through my unnerved expression, and smiled at me. "Trust me."

It was not a nice smile. I couldn't help but think this was my last meal.

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…and I was correct when I saw what Rei considered an appropriate disguise for breaking into an all girl school which also doubled as a teaching academy for the finer points of piloting a walking weapon of mass destruction.

At the sight of the dainty white shirt with black trimmings, which I was horrified to learn would fit me perfectly, or the cute looking red ruffled skirt, which I was doubly horrified would also fit me perfectly. My mind has gone past shock and jumped right into outright denial and life preservation mode.

But by this point I instinctively knew all my efforts were doomed to failure due to the fact I was already in the inescapable death hole known as Rei's room.

It didn't help my situation either that I was trapped in a corner with Rei between me and the door, on her left hand held the white shirt whereas her right hand held the skirt. Occasionally she would shake her arms slightly resulting in the dangling clothing items to dance around in the air as if it would magically make me change my mind about giving up my masculinity.

"Look Rei," my eyes wide and voice shaky, "I really don't think this will fool the security." If I was lucky Rei would return to being rational, yes she was good at rational so anything time now she would see reason. Aaaanytime now… her demanding eyes however made me realize this would be very unlikely. Crap. What happened to sneaking into an armed compound with camouflage gear or black spandexes or even cardboard boxes these days?!

"Make-up." Rei retorted flatly at my previous concerns, she gestured at a small table with her left elbow, in a voice which contained an unhealthy amount of I-don't-give-a-damn.

Ohgodohgodohgodohgod

"Rei I don't think you understand, they have very strict security there. Like people with guns loaded with real deadly bullets." I appealed to her with my wellbeing, it's not like getting even with me from the events of this afternoon was worth me getting killed right? I mean how long can a young woman hold a grudge?

Oh god I'm so dead.

"Trust me."

Deciding I was not going to jump into her old uniform Rei decided to take the initiative personally; if I wasn't going to co-operate and dress up in drag then she would dress me up instead.

As my mind decided to shut down in order to save myself from the coming horror the last things I saw were Rei's face and that damnable red skirt.

With a sore neck I woke up to find myself on the blue carpet of Rei's room with something bumping against my ribs. I turned my head towards the source of the nudges to see Rei looming over me perched on a chair next to my fallen form, her right leg swinging casually nudging the side of my ribs every time it completed a swing.

"Please let it be a dream," I muttered as I leveraged myself to get off the carpet, if I had been less zoned out I would have noticed a distinct breeziness between my thighs.

Rei turned around to pick something up from her bed before casually chucking it at me "Here," I barely registered the small rectangular object thrown at my direction causing me to fumble before I gripped the edges of the object. Realizing it was a mirror I took a deep breath before I peered into the reflective surface expecting the worst.

"Urk." Looking into the mirror I felt my consciousness leaving me again, but a firm hand belonging to Rei who's since gotten off her chair steadied me before I collapsed again.

"Shinji I called a taxi."

"We're really going ahead with this aren't we?" A deep breath in an attempt to calm my nerves. "Fine, but what do you want to show me so badly you'd risk me being shot up?"

"Shot up?" She stared at me quizzically while straightening her dress with her hands. "We're going to NERV for a surprise."

Great I don't even know why exactly am I risking my life. A car horn tooting outside informed us the taxi has arrived; leaning over, Rei grabbed my hand as if she expected me to make a break for my freedom.

"It's alright Rei, I'll go along with it." By now my heart was going into overdrive fueled by a powerful cocktail of nervousness and embarrassment. I did promise Rei I'd 'go out' with her and I was not one who'd easily break a promise.

Unfortunately by the time I got on the taxi whatever courage mustered up previously all but vanished leaving me a shell that can't even make eye contact with the driver properly. "Well, where can I bring you two lovely girls tonight?" I couldn't tell if the driver was being friendly or I was so obviously a boy in drag that he's teasing us.

"NERV Academy please. Main entrance." Rei instructed closing the taxi door.

We're going to sneak through the main entrance? Seriously?

The driver let out a low whistle, while releasing the handbrakes pulling the car onto the road, "Hard at work even during the holidays I see?"

Rei nodded, "Testing," and didn't elaborate further nor did the driver enquire any further.

I shouldn't be surprised that Rei was so good at lying considering her magnificent poker face, but after seeing it in action and compounded with my current situation, I felt I would do well to watch out for her in the future should I want to continue living a happy life. A life which could be coming to an end shortly if this all went horribly.

The rest of the ride went smooth without incident, soon we found ourselves in front of the main gates. I started sweat bullets as far as I'm concerned this was the gate to hell itself. A large sign stating all intruders would be shot at didn't help calm me down by any measure.

"Here," I looked down and saw Rei placing a bracelet into my palm. "Fuyutsuki gave it to me, it'll let us in." Looking back up at Rei I saw a small twitch at the corner of her mouth.

"Ah." I said out loud, my brain processing what she with the speed a condemned soul can only manage. "Dare I suspect this bracelet would have let me in even without dressing like this?" I narrowed my eyes at my twin sister. A corner of Rei's mouth twitched again. If it was under any other circumstances I would have been shocked at Rei's behavior, but for the moment my mind was filled with sheer disbelief at what she would go so far for.

Payback? I thought to myself. Is this payback for laughing at her when we had lunch?

"Payback," noted Rei, "is a dish best served cold." Rei emphasized the last statement by leaning closer to me narrowing her eyes she did so. Without warning Rei pulled back and clutched her sides, tears following freely as she burst into hysterical laughter. It took a good few minutes for her to calm down.

Taking several deep breaths she righted herself back up, then twisted and spun away from me arms out stretched before stopping to face me four meters away her hands outstretched, index finger and thumb forming into a frame around me as if she was judging how to take a picture with a camera.

"That hairpin looks good on you Shinji." To be fair my mind right now was too broken to process the complement but at least my body hasn't turned traitor, my arm reacting automatically reaching up to pull off the hairpin like it was some kind of poisonous parasitic leech.

Or at least it would have pulled off the hair pin if Rei didn't catch my hand before it managed to remove the offending object from my head. I blinked at how fast Rei managed to cross four meters with such grace at the blink of an eye.

"Don't touch it." Rei's tone wasn't a suggestion but a command. Still holding onto my wrists Rei pulled on it causing me to jerk slightly. "Come on, follow me."

We walked up to the guards who ran our bracelets through a scanner before letting us through. Taking a good close look at the security I was glad I didn't have to sneak through the checkpoint as I saw no less than twenty soldiers stationed around the entrance not counting the ones positioned on the walkways on the walls immediately above us, not to mention size of the massive white walls itself, then there was the barbed wire fencing and to top everything off an entire array of cameras.

After around ten minutes of being pulled along by Rei we reached an empty concrete courtyard roughly the size of four basketball fields where Rei released my arm and continued walking for eight paces before stopping and turned to look at me.

"The surprise." Rei reached out with her left arm in a fluid motion, with her right arm clutched the bracelet on her left arm. Immediately I was blinded by light being released from Rei, by the time I regained my vision I shocked to see Rei was missing.

Instead in her place with a Genesis Machine.

"I passed my qualifiers for this Genesis Machine last week," The GM took a single stride and stood before me, its step made a solid crunch on impact. "I wanted to show you this in person, the first one of its kind mother ever made." Truly stunned at Rei's surprised I reached out with my hand to touch the metallic surface of the GM when a presence behind me made herself known.

"Dohoho, what's this?" I jumped when I heard the leery voice, its high pitch identifying it to belong to a girl's, turning around I saw someone who I thought I would never meet in my lifetime.

"I thought something was going on when I saw two people sneaking around. Then I saw that light and I _had_ to investigate. You know I assumed it to be some freshman playing around with her GM, but nowhere in my mind thought I would find the Doll playing around in the middle of nowhere." Standing before me head held high with one hand proudly on her hip, the other arm relaxed on her side was Asuka Langely Soryu looking at us with utter arrogance. For the record she looked nowhere as sweet and innocent as she did in the magazine, in fact lets replace sweet and innocent with confrontational and prideful.

Flipping her hair nonchalantly Asuka's striking blue eyes turned to fix themselves on me to which I couldn't help but flinch. When angry Rei's glare seemed to give the impression it's going to suck you into an empty abyss, Asuka's gaze however simply promised unending violence. Sensing my weakness Asuka bared her teeth in a predatory smile, with excellent posture not out of place on a catwalk she began walking towards us.

"Who is this?" demanded Asuka who too close to me for comfort especially considering I'm wearing a skirt; should I be happy she's not seeing through this disguise?

"My brother."

Please kill me.

All pretense of elegance jettisoned when Asuka almost fell backwards from shock at Rei's answer. "Oh my god, who taught you to joke like that." Exclaimed Asuka her facial expression shocked like she found something amazing. I would have liked to correct Asuka that Rei does indeed joke, except her jokes took on a whole different level of disturbing.

"Not a joke." Rei added.

"I-it's not like I have a perverted hobby or anything!" With the cat out of the bag I might as well put up a defense no matter how feeble and futile it was. As if god wanted to screw me harder a sudden gust of wind kicked up my skirt revealing something definitely unfeminine.

Asuka's hands covered her reddened face almost as if by instinct, her entire body recoiling away from me.

"Mein gott!" screamed Asuka. I couldn't help but get the feeling there would be no way to explain the misunderstanding without bloodshed on her part. Watching the girl convert shock and horror into pure rage I welcomed the inevitable fist headed towards my face.

Come sweet death, I thought. Closing my eyes I welcomed the fist which would put an end to this embarrassing charade forever.

The fist never got near me as a series of explosions demanded our attention as it rocked the academy.

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Somewhere in East Europe:

Gendo did not have to wait long, inwardly he allowed himself to feel a hint of pride at the quality of his information network for a moment before burying it with the cold professionalism he was familiar with before the start of every operation. Mana relayed back the information that she has spotted five trucks worth of combatants and supplies approaching the village by the main road towards the village.

While he concentrated on his offensive preparations and completed a mental checklist in his head Gendo decided to do one last check in with his assistant.

"What's their ETA?" Gendo enquired as he counted off his remaining ammunition for his submachine gun; he would be leaving the sniper rifle at the outlook as it was dead weight at close quarter combat.

There was a moment of silence on the comms as Mana accessed the speed of the trucks and its remaining distance to the village.

"At their current speed I would give the convoy 20 minutes to reach the village."

"Very well, I will leave the rest to you."

"You can count on me sir."

If Gendo was not so focused in readying himself for the coming event he would have admonished Mana once again for her constant phrase. Despite what the phrase may imply trust was never an issue between Gendo and Mana. Ever since the day Gendo took her in from her captors five years ago she had been a constant willing companion in his quest for answers. His only guess being the phrase was an old habit of gratitude Mana had towards him for freeing her from her torment not too short yet not too long ago. Either way now was not the time to ponder the psyche of his accomplice and travel companion.

After cleaning the insides of his guns and made sure the barrels were bedded into the stock properly, Gendo allowed himself to relax slightly by going over his entire plan to this point.

Three months ago with intelligence he gathered from his previous incursion against the same cell in Romania he found clues as to their next step of their plan. Not surprisingly the plans he found was heavily encoded, but the parts he managed to make out from partially decoding their plans as well as information liberated from several prisoners who survived his assault hinted his family, more specifically Shinji and Rei were primary targets for this cell.

To be honest this revelation had not surprised him too much. Over the years his search for Yui led him to several rogue cells with similar goals to either find Yui or capture his children to lure Yui from hiding, forcing him to crush each and every one of them in order to gather more information about her possible whereabouts and just as importantly keeping his twins safe from these madmen as he struggled on with his search. But the disturbing fact about their plan this time around was how close they were to triggering said plans and how well organized they were.

With the help of the gathered information they managed to zero in their approximate location to this mountain range. The next move was to locate all the tunnel entrances which they definitely must have and set about having them collapsed until only one was left.

Taking into consideration of several factors the plan was simple. There were simply too many people to fight through in such tight quarters without resorting to the use of explosives or heavy weaponry. And even if he succeeded the chances of someone erasing the information before he could get to it was unacceptably high. Therefore firstly he must make them bleed out their personal by means of turning their own secure base of operation into a deathtrap.

Secondly it would give them enough hope that they would make it through the siege for them not to purge their hard drives; before the final attack Gendo had to lead them through a narrow tightrope of hope and despair. Thirdly the traps at the entrance were only temporarily deactivated when their own men exited the entrance, which meant the most feasible way to enter the cave was when they were leaving.

As the coming days passed almost everyone who tried to leave, sought help or forage for food, he murdered remorselessly, once in their desperation they contacted someone from the nearby village, who he suspected had a satellite phone. The area they were in was far too remote to catch a normal cell phone signal. A young man was sent up to hitchhike through the path to deliver the food, for Gendo the decision was simple. As of now the man's body still lay where it fell covered in snow with a hole in his skull.

In reaction to this discovery, Mana was sent down to the village to track down the household who owned the satellite phone then had the entire household wiped out by what was disguised as an accidental fire. It was not pleasant but Gendo couldn't ascertain how well connected they were with the militants in the cave; he could not risk Mana and his life because he missed something.

The convoy of military trucks eventually reached the village approximately 20 minutes after Mana reported back to Gendo as expected. Men in full camouflage fatigues each one well equipped with an automatic weapon and war gear, neatly disembarked from their vehicles stretching their legs from their long ride fully refreshed and eager for the hike up the mountain.

From what Gendo understood the reinforcements were to split up into two groups. The first group would make contact with the remaining members of the hideout in order to make sure the path was clear all the way up. Then the second group was to bring up the supplies under the escort of the first group. Once finished they had the order to re-secure the immediate area and flush out the attackers.

But whilst the last of the soldiers got off the trucks those who got off earlier couldn't help but feel a sense of dreadful oddness about the situation like something was amiss.

It did not take long until realization struck them since they've entered the village there was not a person to be seen. It was like they had entered a ghost town and eventually a scout reported back with a piece of paper in his hand. As the commander scanned through the paper leaflet quickly several points of attention linked together to draw a grim picture of what exactly he got himself into.

'Villagers are to evacuate… very unsafe... government gas lines ruptured… possibility of explosion high…'

Looking back up with panic filled eyes the commander was about to issue an immediate withdrawal but it came too late as the entire village exploded into flames when Mana squeezed the remote detonator's trigger. Every explosive planted in the village simultaneously exploded shredding everyone and everything caught within the explosion.

While Gendo himself didn't carry any explosives on him for this trip, the same restrictions didn't quite apply to Mana.

Following Gendo's instructions Mana spent all night practically planting explosives at every corner of the village and to increase the deadliness of the explosion as well as for realism's sake she also carefully ruptured the previously mentioned underground gas lines as well. The resulting mayhem was such a spectacular show of fire and death, so much so Mana shelved her plan to search for survivors. With this magnitude of explosive force she was certain no one could have possibly survived making a search redundantly futile. Looking up at the sky she watched the aftermaths of the spectacular explosion impassively; a sizable mushroom cloud of dust and smoke rose into the sky.

Meanwhile shortly before the explosion the men inside the cave emerged to re-secure the cave entrance before reinforcements arrived. Mana's sudden demolition of the village expectedly caught their full attention, with their concentration diverted elsewhere it was all too simple for Gendo to silently roll a grenade at their feet. The entire group of armed men was caught in the explosion which outright killed a fair portion of the group with those who were left disorientated swiftly dispatched by Gendo's pistol.

Wasting no time to reload he switched over to his submachine gun, sprinting into the cave and managing to narrowly avoid being shot by ducking around a corner with practiced ease. Annoyed at having the momentum of assault stalled, Gendo yanked the pin off a flashbang before chucking it around the corner. Panicked shouting told him he struck home before a loud bang was heard followed by pained shouting. Making the most of his advantage he rushed around the corner to gun down the stunned men.

Gendo was caught off guard when a large soldier snuck behind Gendo and attempted to strangle him with the body of his rifle. Forced to drop his submachine gun in order to grip the rifle to prevent being choked out, his other hand reached back in an attempt to gauge out the man's eye. His thumb found the target, pressing down on the eye rewarding him with a pained shout before being released from the man's grip. Gendo drop and rolled towards his weapons on the dirt ground before taking aim at his assailant who was now on his knees screaming and clutching the areas around his crushed eye with both hands, before sending a bullet through his head.

Looking around Gendo saw computers and monitors strewn everywhere, he instinctively knew he was standing in the nerve center of the hideout. Spinning around to double check he was the only alive person in the room he proceeded to scan the display of each monitor. One of the monitors displayed the entrance which he came through not too long ago, the next few monitors were blank which he assumed were security monitors for the exits collapsed back two months ago when the operation first started. Alarm blared in his mind when Gendo turned to looked at the next monitor and saw the words 'Deleting all data' with a progress bar reaching 70%. Reaching for the keyboard he hoped to cancel the process, but it was impossible. In a moment of blind panic he did the only thing he could do and pulled the power cord.

It later took him another ten minutes of fiddling with the computer inside the cave before the computer booted up again. Praying for the best Gendo forced the operating system to open the partially deleted file. Though he could not understand the encrypted words on the file he saw enough to know their intentions.

On the monitor was a word document, the words since distorted either from encryption or because the file was partially destroyed, but what stood out was a picture of Rei and Shinji with today's date.

Without hesitation Gendo pulled out his satellite phone, this was almost the worst case scenario; he already thought out a plan in mind long before the assault. Pressing a speed dial button a moment later he was greeted by the familiar voice of an old acquaintance.

"What is it Ikari?" Fuyutsuki was probably justified at being a bit pissed. It was school holidays in Japan after all, he probably wanted to be left alone without the headache a bunch of teenagers messing around with super robots can cause. That and the fact Gendo Ikari rarely called to make good news.

"I was too late Fuyutsuki." Gendo didn't have to elaborate for the aging man to understand the direness of the situation.

"The twins would both be at Tokyo-3 today Gendo." The tone of Fuyutsuki's voice implying whether action was really necessary in a city with one of the highest concentrations of Genesis Machines in the world. Even if the vast majority of the machine population belonged to trainee pilots, a super weapon does not have the word _super_ in it for no reason. Needless to say that also entailed a lot of military personal.

"No. This lot aren't like the others," Gendo elaborated as he picked up a nearby stack of reports and skimmed through it. "These men reek of military or at least paramilitary."

"Alright," sighed Fuyutsuki. One of these days he wished Gendo would lose his paranoia and loosen up on his pragmatism, though that was as unlikely as the sun burning itself out tomorrow. Worst of all most of the time his paranoia becomes justified down the line. "I'll send the Unicorn to escort them to the base."

"Very well. Take care Fuyutsuki."

"You don't make it easy on me," Fuyutsuki replied wryly.

Hanging up on Fuyutsuki, he dialed in his next number…

"Mana report."

"Spic and span sir," Mana reported crisply, the sound of timber burning in the background told Gendo she completed her handiwork.

"I know you haven't had the chance to rest yet, but we must leave. Now."

"Sir?" Mana questioned more out of the duty of a soldier who needed more information to complete a mission rather than personal curiosity; uncertainties tend to disturb her.

"We're going to Tokyo-3."

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More explosions and gunfire rocked the foundations of the academy as I sprinted through the ragged opening in the crumbling concrete wall made by Rei's rifle. Part of me was grateful I had taken in the habit of playing sports and regular exercise with Touji earlier this year as my older self was sure to be huffing otherwise. Or maybe it was the adrenaline.

In the background I heard an air raid siren sounding for a few seconds before it was abruptly shut off, I wondered whether the intruders made it into the control room to turn off the siren or they simply blew apart the siren itself but I forced myself to push that concern aside as I concentrated at the more important task of finding cover. After spotting several wooden crates placed around a corner of what I assume to be a warehouse, I hid behind them and peered over the edge where I spotted the back of Rei clad in her blue grey Eva-00 looking over her own shoulder at me making sure I was safely sheltered before giving me a brief assuring nod.

Part of me wanted to study and admire Rei's Genesis Machine a bit more, my curiosity peaking at the fact this was the very first of its kind ever built. While it was probably slightly below average in terms of height compared with its peers I couldn't help to think how surprisingly tall it was even if it were standing a hundred meters away from me. Its armor was streamlined throughout the entire body except around the shoulders and legs where most GMs tend to be a bit bulky. It was mostly colored in a dark military blue with the rest trimmed with gun metal grey, likewise the thrusters fitting on its back, waist and legs were similarly colored. At even from this distance I could make out the faintly glowing red mono eye focusing on me. The other part of me loathed at my current helpless situation.

"Shinji stay away from the windows and the perimeter walls. If able you should move deeper into the complex, you'd be safer there," advised Rei, her soft voice laced with the metallic edge of outboard speakers.

Standing next to Rei, was Asuka who was also fully equipped to do battle, her rivalry with Rei seemed temporarily on hold. I found myself thinking how Asuka's Eva-02 looked very much at home amongst the fire and explosions, its red angular armor seemingly glowed as it reflected the fire caused by detonated shells and the setting sun in the distance, its four green optics set into its armored head burned menacingly like the eyes of a war god incarnate. Sighting the long dual barrels on the back of Asuka's machine coupled with the many missile pods, some attached, some floating in the air behind her, along with the two massive weapons being held in its hands I thought to myself 'out of every Genesis Machine I have seen on television and in magazines, this one looks the most ready to march off immediately to war.'

"Tsk, I hate piloting without wearing my plug suit, everything just feels too itchy and my skirt tends to hike up doing this," boomed Asuka from within her enclosed helmet making her displeasure known to everyone. I wasn't sure if it was Asuka's loudness or the bass of the machine's outward speakers, but my spine couldn't help but to send a shiver which crept up my body nor the warm blush blooming on my face once my imagination started digesting the information of Asuka's skirt hiking up.

Damn you hormones.

Fortunately Asuka didn't notice it otherwise she would have fragged me instantly.

"Attention all NERV staff!"

My head perked up at the first sign of a NERV reaction against its intruders with the exception of the rather unfortunate siren earlier.

"The compound has been breached by multiple hostiles across two areas. All security personal is to defend their designated faculty areas and hold off all invaders consisting of heavy infantryman." The voice belonged that of a young woman, though her voice was a bit shaky leading me to believe she was one of the temporary skeletal staff left behind during school holidays.

"This…," it was the woman's voice again this time a bit shakier, but her voiced steeled itself when making the coming announcement. I frowned to myself, 'this won't be good.'

"We have also identified two Genesis Machines leading the attack, designated target A and target B."

"Target A is a late American Arch Angel variant with confirmed stealth capabilities and unknown armaments."

"Target B is a Russian Berkut armed with two assault guns."

My blood ran cold, '_two_ GMs, how could some no name terrorist organisation get their hand on two of the rarest and most powerful war machines man has ever created!' It was a situation even more unlikely than terrorist stealing nuclear weapons from the superpowers during the cold war. Every government lucky enough to be granted Genesis Cores to develop Genesis Machines from guarded these assets like a dragon guarded its most valuable treasures.

Asuka mirrored my sentiments thought albeit more expressively with outraged shouting. "Are you fucking kidding me? Someone stole an American GM _and_ a Russian GM?! Someone must really be dragging their asses considering they are stored away at a _quantumized state_! How the hell do you steal something stored in a pocket dimension in the first place?!"

From behind the crates I observed Asuka must really be pissed right now because Eva-02 seemed to be throwing a fit. If it wasn't for their dire situation at this moment Shinji would have found it amusing.

"This is bad." Rei summed up her feelings to contribute to the situation.

"But I believe that was Ms Ibuki on the speakers just now. At the very least we have the advantage in number." Stated Rei, her head sweeping around side to side in order to ascertain no enemy was creeping up to her surroundings.

"No we don't damnit. You're in a freaking prototype machine and Ibuki is just a mousey teacher who had enough luck to pilot a GM. We're against some bastards with big enough balls to somehow steal two Genesis Machines and hardass enough to attack an academy where many international pilots are being trained. I bet they are trying to make off with more equipment."

Asuka continued her angry tirade motioning as expressively and wildly as her gun wielding arms would allow, "But no matter. The great Asuka Langely Soryu will crush this insidious invasion and rescue everyone!" Suddenly Asuka's mood flipped from legitimately pissed off to disturbingly happy and eager.

Without notice Eva-02 whipped around to me so abruptly I thought for a moment she did noticed my blush earlier and was about to exact some fatal justice. Instead she struck an imperialistic pose as though she was a general about to send forth the first wave of an attack. Asuka pointed one of her guns at me and I had no doubts in my mind if her hands weren't already holding onto her two guns an index finger would be directed at me while the other hand would be nestled on her hip.

"You there! The Cross-dresser! You have the honor to witness The Great Asuka Langely Soryu in action! Look up and behold, be sure to spread the tale of my great deed, _then_ I may spare your perversion from my wrath once this is over!" At this proclamation I looked down in serious contemplation whether the ground was rumbling due to the fighting intensifying around us or Asuka was simply demanding the earth to shake in order to further emphasis her point.

Eva-02's thrusters roared angrily to life as it lowered its two cannon barrels from its back, down onto her shoulders as her weapons readied itself for imminent combat. The screams of its thrusters increased as it lifted its frame about five meters off the ground in a massive cloud of dust and with a final roar of its thrusters it sped down the courtyard in a hurricane of dust and debris then around the corner out of sight at the direction of where the closest fighting seemed to be happening from like a demented red hovercraft from hell.

I was so enraptured by the departure of Eva-02 I barely noticed Rei who noiselessly snuck up to me in Eva-00. Suddenly startled by the proximity of Eva-00's mono-eye I almost fell onto my backside but managed enough dignity to right myself back up before my rear touched the ground in what would have been an embarrassing fall. I frowned at Rei indignantly.

"Shinji."

There was wrongness in Rei's soft voice calling my name. It felt unfitting for the urgency of the current situation but there was also an edge of, something quietly menacing in her voice that somehow screamed wrong.

"Um… Rei?" I mentally bereted myself at my own dumb answer.

"Please watch me Shinji. Not her. She is monument of redundancy," Rei said the last sentence off handedly as if she was describing something very small and insignificant. Eva-00's head moved closer now like it wanted be sure it was the only thing in my vision; it demanded my sole attention. "Watch me closely Shinji, I will show you my superiority."

I had to gather my remaining wits as I realized the paradox of this situation and what she was asking. "Rei I can't watch you fight while I am back here."

A flat pause.

"Understood. I would record the battle and replay it to you once we return home," her head nodding as if satisfied by her own answer.

Without much ado Rei turned her Eva-00 around in a graceful motion before walking out of the warehouse each foot step making an audible mechanical whir and a thump as metal treads impacted against the concrete ground.

I had to blink several times before thinking of how the hell I didn't notice her sneaking up in the first place.

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'This…is very, very bad.' Under normal and less volatile circumstances involving less gunfire, explosions and bipedal super-weapons, Maya Ibuki was sure she could have came up with something more eloquent to describe her situation especially considering her impressive intellect but for now it summed thing up very nicely in the part of her brain which wasn't running around in circles in panic or trying to come up with a solution to get herself out of her fix. Though deciding to activate her bracelet to summon her Genesis Machine from its quantumised state was a very encouraging first step.

From the start with all things considered it was meant to be a very easy assignment. 'Find Rei and Shinji Ikari then bring them back to the base.' On hindsight she should have known something was up when the deputy headmaster called her up such an uncharacteristic hurry. She had prior plans to have dinner followed by a girls' night out together with her sempai and Misato this night however the usually relaxed Fuyutsuki was very insistent this time and he even to promised to pay her a bonus on top of her holiday pay, imagine that.

Of course everything spiraled to hell in a hand basket the moment she was about to set off from the base with what appeared to be a very well organized militant well breaching its walls. If she didn't know better Maya would have assumed them to be special services. Deciding it would be better to actually have a base left standing to return the twins back to, Maya reshuffled her priorities in her head as she gained altitude in her GM before looking down from cloud cover spotting something rather peculiar standing next to a storage warehouse complex.

"Bingo!"

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It is funny how at times of mortal danger your mind starts to backtrack and psycho analyse itself. And as I tried to stay as still as possible behind the same stack of crates I initially used as cover when this whole incident started my mind definitely registered the American made Genesis Machine less than ten meters away from me as an apex alpha level death threat to my life.

When Rei left to help with the defense of the base, I immediately got up and looked for a door, which I later found to be locked and stubbornly refused to budge even when I tried to kick it down. Let's be honest once more, I could really use more muscles, though at the very least I can ascertain doors at NERV were very solid. Meanwhile around the same time I swore to myself to hit the gym with Touji if I ever got out of this alive, I became aware of an approaching irregular looking shadow prompting me to duck back behind the crates. Unfortunately it must have noticed me as well because it has decided to stay by the hole in the wall Rei made. I had no doubts she knew I was here, my bet being it was waiting for allied infantry to arrive in order to capture or kill me. When I thought to myself things can't get any worse a traitorous part of my mind reminded me I am indeed still in drag.

I'm either going to be killed or captured by international terrorists while I'm wearing a skirt. Realization hit me if the enemy didn't kill me, my own embarrassment would probably finish me off.

Though I wasn't very religious I couldn't help to look up and pray. If I perish here please don't make headlines.

Somehow a tabloid article titled "Son of Yui Ikari Perishes While Experimenting Bisexuality" really didn't sound appealing by any measure. Well at the very least Touji, Kensuke and Kaworu would get a big kick out of it.

Thumping sounds I recognized to be the sound a GM made when walking on solid ground snapped me back to reality. Either the pilot got impatient or infantry support was unavailable. Secretly I hoped it was the latter due to the fact it probably meant Asuka and Rei were successful in pushing back the intruders.

'In any case I'm not going to give up so easily.' I peeked up over the edge of the crate noticing the Genesis Machine was approaching me at a speed most would consider slower than what would be called _efficient boy grabbing speed_. 'Sadistic asshole,' I thought to myself frustrated at my situation. From six meters away she noticed my head poking over the crates and slowly shook its head from side to side while waggling her pointer finger as a gesture to tell me not to try anything heroic _or else_.

From this distance I had a good look at the American Genesis Machine. An Arch Angel. It was a half armored type meaning armor protection was kept to a minimum focusing mainly on its shields and maneuverability to provide protection from harm, while heavy armaments were kept in its own quantumised pocket dimension until needed in opposed to being traditionally hard mounted onto the frame. I could easily see the exposed grey plugsuit along its abdominal, biceps, thighs and breasts. The only area which was clad in white plating were her hands and fore-arms, legs from knees downwards, back and shoulders, while her head was enclosed by a rounded helmet with an opaque screen for a face, I could see brunette hair spilling out the back of the helmet. There was thin air intakes wrapped around the sides of her chest where her ribs were, as well as on the bulky shoulders undoubtedly contributed to the performance of its wing-like rear thrusters likewise the waist and leg intakes probably served a similar function. Taking everything into account I guessed it was around 16 foot tall.

"Well? Aren't you going to beg for your life little girl?" The woman inside the GM was definitely not Japanese judging from the accent. The Arch Angel was now standing five meters away from me. "AH! Here's a starter, trying saying 'please be gentle with me Mari-sama!'" The perverted squeal from its pilot sounded monstrously disturbing once mixed with the metallic tone of the speakers.

"No," I replied flatly letting a bit of anger seep into my voice incredulous of being mistaken to be female.

"Futhermore," I added, might as well get this out of the way before I get atomized or most likely blasts to very fine bits considering how American GMs tend to carry more missiles and explosives than their rivals, "I'm a boy."

"What."

"I said," gathering whatever courage which didn't desert me or turned traitor and sided with fear I stepped out from behind the crate and pulled my skirt up, "I. am. a. boy." There we go, I can finally die like a man.

There was a tense pause afterwards even when a whistling noise grew louder and louder. Initially I thought it was coming from the Arch Angel, however as the noise grew steadily more noticeable my eyes widened when I realized where it was from and what was likely about to happen. At the last split second I threw myself away from the Arch Angel as far as possible shortly afterwards a white object slammed through the roof of the warehouse and directly onto the my almost-killer like a humanoid cruise missile. The resulting shockwave knocked me off my feet and judging from the wetness on my face I must have suffered a small cut on my cheek.

"Lucky." Said the white GM model to itself as it righted itself. The Arch Angel was crushed into the ground by the impact. Personally I was a bit smug that my revelation distracted the enemy long enough for my savior to score a solid death from above.

The Evangelion was recovering from its fall, when it noticed me standing in front of her resulting in a pregnant pause where death machine and teenage boy eyed each other awkwardly. Even in my stupor I noticed the distinctness of the Evangelion in front of me with its pure white coloration and single horn jutting from its forehead, the face gazing back at me was a featureless facemask with a V-shaped green visor.

"Y-you're Shinji right?"

I didn't know whether to cry in joy or despair at someone recognized me so effortlessly in this outfit.

Not waiting for my reply she made her way to me and picked me up with its arms despite my protests. "Come on, Fuyutsuki told me to get you."

Wait, then Fuyutsuki knew this was going to happen?

In reply to my quizzing stare she shrugged her shoulders at me. "He told me to fetch you and Rei but he didn't say why. I guess Rei is somewhere here too, but I think I should bring you somewhere more secure first considering," she gestured casually at the downed Arch Angel and I got her point completely.

"Don't worry your sister is a great pilot and Eva-00 is more capable than most people realise. Let us get out of here, now. That Arch Angel is only stunned and I can't protect you and fight that thing at the same time. If I'm lucky I would still have time to fix myself up for dinner tonight."

My mind must have been more broken than I realized but I swore the damn woman just compared the value of my safety with her dinner and night out.

"Hold on tight!" She shouted through her speakers at the same time her thrusters howled in preparation for a takeoff. I clutched at the Evangelion tightly not knowing exactly what to expect, except I supposed it would be similar to riding a rollercoaster with no harness on.

With a final growl, the Evangelion's shot up into the air through the sizable hole in the roof it made with its entrance. Clutching the Evangelion's chest tightly I would have been appreciated the view of the city from this height if my eyes weren't forced to shut itself to protect it from damaged by the roaring wind. The blood rushing from one side of my body to the other wasn't particularly pleasant either.

"You know you're a bit light for a boy," added the Evangelion pilot.

Massively re-evaluating how I felt about the woman, I was about retort with sarcasm along the lines of her being an idiot of course anyone would be light if your strength was multiplied literally hundreds if not thousands of times but I was interrupted when her head suddenly perked up and without warning rolled violently to the left.

"Stealth?!" Her distress was in the statement as she swiftly braked hard before rolling to the right followed by violent acceleration.

My mind was beginning to black out with the sudden G-force placed upon my body; I am glad my lunch with Rei was not too heavy as I felt my stomach doing barrel rolls.

Barely two seconds passed before a series of roaring explosions behind us told me what I needed to know. The Arch Angel was back up again and was not happy its face got planted into the ground by the white Evangelion.

"Hang on Shinji! I'll try my best to drop you off somewhere safe, you're not wearing a plugsuit right now and evading like this would kill you before she does!"

Moments later she shot up into the air before spiraling around into a drive towards the ground plummeting at a speed I was not entirely sure she could recover from. The total descent in reality took only five seconds, my perspective however felt over three times longer as the ground appeared closer and closer. Against every rule of physics she came to complete stop just moments before hitting the ground, I almost passed out again as all the blood in my body moved from one side of my bloody to the other. It was so bad when she released me I struggled seriously to remain on my feet as consciousness sought to evade me but the thought of an imminent encounter with an Arch Angel motivated me enough to at least not fall over.

I barely registered an assault gun materializing on the white Evangelion which was quickly employed to blow a hole into a nearby building. Even through my dazed vision I noticed the gun fired a beam of energy which sounded like a shrill drill instead of the usual ballistic shell.

"Get inside!" She said hurriedly. I didn't have to be told twice, at once I hobbled immediately towards the hole burned into the concrete wall; a sense of déjà vu washed over me when I searched once more for something substantial to seek cover behind.

It was not a moment too soon as more explosions ripped apart the ground outside the building signaling the arrival of the Arch Angel. Not losing a single beat I made best time towards the closest cover I could find which appeared to be a large slab of marble the size of a large SUV. Upon reaching behind the slab of rock, I took a few seconds to catch my breath before I peaking over the side of the cover to see a standoff between the white Evangelion who was armed with its gun and the Arch Angel who in turn was armed with an assault cannon in each hand. More disturbingly the air distorted around the Arc Angel as rows upon rows of missiles materialized themselves in mid air all aimed at the horned Evangelion, each missile being suspended in the air by unknown forces.

"Well, well. Any last words before I tear you apart and take Trap-kun back with me?" Taunted the Arch Angel pilot.

The air between the two machines started to blur in a similar way to a desert heat haze as the AT fields of both machines met and started eroding each other This resulted in both machines' AT field being susceptible to damage.

The Arch Angel barked out a laugh again at her opponents defiance before continuing her taunt, "I guess it's goodbye the- HEY! What the hell is going on?!" Overconfidence turned to panic when her face turned towards me.

Warily the white Evangelion shifted so her gun was still pointed at the Arch Angel before allowing herself to look over her shoulder at me.

Huh? I was confused at the sudden interest towards my direction before I realised the big slab of marble I was hiding behind was emitting a bright light.

"Impossible!" exclaimed the Arch Angel pilot.

"Shinji listen to me very carefully! Put both hands on it and concentrate it being around you!"

"What the hell is going on?!" I shouted back. My mind was racing while my hand started to be sucked into the glowing mass.

"Get in the robot!"

Robot? I studied the glowing material more carefully. Is that how they all look like when they are in storage? Or is that how they are before they find a suitable pilot?

Before any further action could be made, everyone's attention towards me was interrupted as a deafening shrill scream came from the direction of the Arch Angel. The air around the Genesis Machine returned to normal while the missiles hanging in the air ominously previously, lifelessly fell down to the ground with a series of dull thunks. Protruding from the chest of the Arch Angel was the point of an oversized bloodied knife.

Standing behind the Arch Angel was Rei. With her helmet missing, Rei's blue hair whipped around in the breeze her face was paler and colder than usual to the point it was frightening even to me. It took me a few seconds to realized but her eyes were focused fully on me despite her left hand held a Genesis Machine impaled onto her knife. For a moment Rei's features looked supernatural, surreal and terrible, in combination of her Genesis Machine, she reminded me of tales of valkyries in old Viking lore.

I could be imagining things but I swore her eyes were glowing.

"Shinji." The tone of her voice lost all its usual softness replaced instead with something hard and unforgiving.

"_Don't_ get in the robot."

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

Author's notes:

To be honest this idea has been sitting in my head for a while. Unfortunately getting it out of my head was the main issue. Fortunately I am a fan of fan fiction (hah) so at the very least I can reference some of my favorite reads so I can get some inspiration in terms of writing format.

Just a note here for those who are wondering this is a work based on Infinite Stratos and not a cross over. Meaning characters from IS would not be featuring in this work.


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